The term "podcast" is a portmanteau of the words "iPod" and "broadcast", the Apple iPod being the brand of portable media player for which the first podcasting scripts were developed. These scripts allow podcasts to be automatically transferred to a mobile device after they are downloaded.

Though podcasters' web sites may also offer direct download or streaming of their content, a podcast is distinguished from other digital media formats by its ability to be syndicated, subscribed to, and downloaded automatically when new content is added, using an aggregator or feed reader capable of reading feed formats such as RSS or Atom.

Receiving and using podcasts
To make full use of podcasts' syndication features appropriate software, often referred to as a podcatching client. The most dominant podcatching client is Apple's iTunes player. However, there are other alternatives, including Juice (multiplatform) and Doppler (Windows). Some established audio players, such as AmaroK, Winamp and Mediamonkey also offer (sometimes limited) podcatching functionality.

Podcast listeners can listen in one of two ways: through a specialized hardware device called an MP3 player or on a computer using media player software.

Podcast Media players software: